Automatic musical instrument.



A. W. MACVEY.

AUTOMATIC MUSICAL INSTR T.

APPLICATION FILED JAN. 28.

1,250,606. A Patented Dec. 18, 1917.

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of which the following'is a Specification.

UNITED TATEslPe' -ENT Gram ARTHUR WARREN iirAovnv, orI BROOKLYN, new YQBK.

aurorre'rro Musical ins'rnunnnr.

Application filed 'J'anuary 28,1915.

To all whom it may concern: Be it known that and a resident of Brooklyn, in the county of Kings and State of vented certam new and nsefulilmprovements in Automatic The invention pertains fmore particularly to a novel construction of tracker bar,-and

.the purpose of the invention is to so arin said bar as to range the air channels eliminate, as far as poss ble, the mechanical precision ofthe tones of a player plano.

' te-r y One of the greatest objections upon anaudlence accuracy with. which the hammers of the piano act, the result being that instead of. the rendition being natural, as though the hand, the whole effect. conveying the impiano were played by In all player pianos knownto me the tracker bar channels have been in straight lines, either one or a plural number being employed, and the perforations 1n the traveling music sheet have been arranged to cooperate with these channels with the utmost mechanical precision, the result being that in the use of the player piano, the notes are struck or the tones sounded with such mechanical accuracy as to produce an unnatural impression and to rob the music of the character which is imparted to renditions thereof by expert musicians playing by hand.

In the playing of pianos even by the most expert musicians slight variations or irregularity in time take place and every audience has become accustomed to music rendered with these slight variations in time, the natural habit of musicians, although very expert. disclosing their inability to strike the notes with that mechanical accuracy which results in the use of a mechanically operated piano. Audiences and individuals having become educated to the playing of pianos by hand naturally, if of an artistic temperament, find limited satisfaction from the music rendered by a player piano.

It is one of the purposes of my invention to so construct the tracker bar of a player piano thatthe music rendered by the piano shall imitate to as great an extent as possible Specification o f Letters Patent.

H 1 hand playing, and I, ARTHUR. YVARRENM h LicVnY, a citizen of the United States,

New York, have in- .ploymg a straight row of airchannels in v the tracker bar I provide a-islightly irregular Musical I-nstruments Y '7 0 i or. waved or.ser-pentmeor other character imitate the skill 'or playing a piano; by'ha'nd; the result being pianos and mus1c sheet which sliall have an lrregular the contrary to" imitate as far in the rendition the slight irregularity or i I l PQQ- 8317.

S i V in attaining this result I so arrange th e air channels in-thetracker bar as to produce those slight variations or irregularity in timethat areindicative of playing by hand. In lieu, there-fore, ot em- "absolute precision or mechanical accu'racy in the sounding 'ofthe'notes, andto, in lieu of such 113160181011 or 'mechanical"accuracy, hand habits of players that the rendition instead; of producing a merely mechanical nnpresslon. which is recognized as 'an ob ectionywill have the effect of providing that character of rendition produced by thehand, l

The object of the invention is, therefore, to produce a tracker-bar for use in player incoopera'tion with a traveling line of air channels,- the irre ularity being just 'suiiicient to preventmechanicalaccuracy in the striking of the notes, but on as possiblev variation which is due to, even with very expert musicians, natural hand'habit or the impossibility oi the human to perform work of this character with the same accuracy that follows the doing thereof by accurately made machine parts.

I illustrate my invention in the accompanying drawings, in which:

Figure 1 is a front i'iew of a tracker bar of ordinary construction, with the exception that the row of air channels therein is not on a straight line but on the contrary on an irregular or waved line, and

Fig. 2 is a vertical section through the same, on a larger scale, on the dotted line 22 of Fig. 1. I

In the drawings 10 designates the tracker bar as a whole, and 11 the series of air channels therein, these channels, except for the irregularity in alinement thereof. being of usual character and connected with the usual mechanism of a player piano, my invention residing more particularly in the arrangement of the air channels 11 on an irregular instead of a straight line.

The tracker bar 10 is shown as possessing a i g e POW 0i air channels 11, but it is well-known ill the art that tracker bars pose that the line of air channels shall not be parallel with the longitudinal axis of the traveling tracker bar, and this arrangement of the air channels is to secure in the rendition of a piece of music the, impression of hand playing. instead of the well-known mechanical sounds of player pianos. By reason of the waved or undulating nature of the line of a1r channels 11, at certain portions of-the" .line, at the upper side thereof, are formed what may be called apcXes or high points, from which the adjacent or contiguous portions of the line diverge downwardly, and.v

each of said diverging portions of the line contalnsa series of the a1r channels. In other words in accordance with my invention I imitate the hand habits of performers on the piano and eliminate that mathemati cal precision of player pianos which results 1n the rendition being mechanical in sound. I do not limit my invention to any specially defined line for the series of air channels,-

so long as said line in cooperation with the perforated music sheet shall produce the slight irregularity in timing usual Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the in good hand playing. The line of air chan nels may be modified in direction at will, as long as the objective result is attained, and said line may be arranged to imitate the hand habit in piano playing of some special performer, if desired.

WVhat I claim as my invention and desire .to' secure by Letters Patent, is:

1. A tracker-bar for player-pianos having the air channels therein arranged on an irregular line forming at intervals along the upper side of the line, at the high points thereof, apexes from which the adjacent portions of the line diverge-downwardly, and each of said portions containing a series of the air channels.

2. A tracker-barfor player-pianos having the air channels therein arranged on a gently waved line, the adjoining portions of which each contain a series of the channels, for the purpose specified.

3. A tracker-bar for contiguous portions of its line of air channels disposedangularly to a horizontal longitudinal line through said bar, with a series of the perforations in each of said portions.

Signed at New Yorkcit in the county of New York, and State of New York, this 27th day of January, ,A. D. 1915;

ARTHUR WARREN MaoVEY.

"Commissioner of Patents,

Washington, D. C.

player-pianos having 

